I've been growing about 3-4 years now, this is the 10th go. I've had a fair bit of success along the way getting a few auto plants to yield over 500g (17-18 ounces), which was well over my initial expectations of 2 or 3 ounces from an Auto.... I've been using LEDs all that time, and again, found the results to be much better than expected.... on a par, if not better than with HPS in my reckoning (but I think MH is better than LED in veg ).

Throughout my growing career, I've been helped and encouraged by a few great growers, mainly Autoberry and Ledbud

My last grow won many accolades ....

I came 4th in the Nov Cream of the Crop competition, on UK420,The entire grow was featured on the Dutch Passion BlogI won the Plant of the Month competition on the Autoflower network.

Along with the kudos, came many magic beans, so this grow is dedicated to my grow Gurus and Muddy at LED Hydroponics, and will feature some of the more interesting strains that I now have in my collection as a thank you to the Autoflower site.

So in a departure from my usual trusty Dutch Passion strains, I'm now going to grow.....

Cream Mandarine XL Auto, by Sweet Seeds - a 4th generation hybrid taking their famous Cream Caramel crossed with Ice Cool to give an orange flavoured Indica with high bud count and resin formation (Cream Mandarine) which is again crossed with a Super Thai '98 clone to give this XL strain adding sativa style height and yields along with subtle aromatic and spicy tones with hints of wood and nuts. She should take 9-10 weeks to harvest

Toofless Alien by Mephisto - this is from their Limited Edition range, a feminised F1 hybrid between two of Mephisto's favourite strains - Ripley's OG x Toof Decay. The Ripley's OG influence amps up the Toof Decay yield, giving heavy lung expanding smoke. She has a combination of terpenes unique to both the parent strains, the dankness of the Ripley's OG now wrapped up in a candy coated shell, and will also take 9-10 weeks to harvest.

Pineapple Express by Fastbuds.

I purposely didn't give a summary of the Pineapple Express - it was the strain featured in the film of the same name..... she takes 9 weeks to finish, but the description on the Fastbuds site was worth copying out in full..... I think I'm in for a treat!!!

Our Pineapple Express is a perfect combination of sensations and flavors, comparable to a fine Brandy or a handmade sports car, It's a marijuana variety created for those who love pleasure and know how to savor every fine morsel of life. Tasty and exemplary overall, this is without a doubt, one of our best autoflowering strains. It's a hybrid formed from an ideal combination of genetics with fruity flavors

TastePineapple Express offers a mixture of unforgettable aromas: ripe fruit, tropical and sweet, very sweet pineapple; sensations that will lead you to discover pleasures like sex. Pineapple Express is for those who have hedonistic palates - those who like to indulge in a delicious desert and sweet liquor with attractive companions in a luxurious restaurant.

EffectThanks to its high THC levels and the pleasurable effects induced by its aroma, this variety is a fantastic aphrodisiac, able to stimulate the sexual appetite and heat up the coldest, most frigid room with hot sex energy in a matter of moments. Its smoke is pleasant with a deep juicy pineapple flavor. It reduces anxiety, increases happiness and produces a sensation of weightlessness, the high is like foreplay - a soft entrance that after five minutes leaves you free of rational thoughts and totally uninhibited. All you'll be left with is pure instinct and a deep need to offer up your desires to the heat of the moment.

Now you may chuckle, but Cannabis can do this..... the Auto Ultimate I once grew was very similar in effect - I took so much time off work that I nearly lost my job cos my Wife kept calling me home early or would make me take heaps of sickies. I was kind of sad when it ran out!

I still have my cheap old Seahawk tent, but the roof has been strengthened with some heavy duty mesh. I have an assortment of LED units, all from my main man Muddy at LED Hydroponics:

2x Skyline 400W units - the latest in the company's range giving a white light - so far I'm very impressed2x Photon 6 - 240W draw and purple light - better penetration than the Helios.... a great LED unit.1x Helios 6 - 300W draw with purple light -I got this unit about 4 years ago (and got loads of stick on UK420) - it's been a trusty workhorse that's delivered again and again and proved the doubters all wrong.2x Helios 2 - 100W draw - great for additional side lighting

I grow with Coco and Airpots, using House and Garden Coco nutrients and their entire range of additives:

Drip clean (throughout the grow to reduce nute build up in the Coco).Roots Excellurator - 0.3ml/L throughout the grow (except when giving PK 13-14).Multizyme - breaks down dead root material converting them into easy to process nutrient.Nitrogen 27% - to tweak the N intake during veg.Amino Treatment - basically Silicon so only used in veg.Algen Extract - a kelp extract used for micro-nutrients during flowering. It is also great for heat stress.Bud XL - flowering additive used throughout bloom.Top Booster - basically PK 13-14 with added Iron.Top Shooter - a late flowering booster (PK 20-9).

I also use Advanced Nutrients Bud Ignitor (around week 6), Bud Candy (during flowering) and Flawless Finish (for a clean quick flush).Cal Mag is essential in my opinion, and I now use the Grotek brand as it has an NPK ratio of 2-0-0 compared to my old Bloom brand which was 5.2-0-0. This will keep their height under control later in the grow as they flower.

I use 20L airpots filled with Coco (Canna Coco Professional Plus). The pH is buffered so that's makes life a little easier, and there's added trichoderma.

I start with EC 0 rainwater, add 0.2ml/L Cal-Mag and then A&B to make EC 0.5. Finally I add Roots Excellurator and Nitrogen to make up an EC 0.7 nutrient solution adjusted to pH5.8.

I soak the Coco till there's plenty of run off. This gives the perfect air/moisture balance. I then make a kind of hill in the middle of the pot, the height just below the edge of the pot, a bit like this....

('scuse the dropped ash in the top right)

I do this to allow peripheral watering in the first couple of weeks, then I add more medium to level out the Coco for the rest of the grow. I think this helps in making the tap root dig deeper initially, then encouraging the side roots to spread out more deeply as they search for the nutrient which will have been delivered more to the sides, rather than through the middle of the pot. Peripheral circumferential watering, I think it's called. I stumbled upon this idea a couple of grows ago, when I was running out of Coco for planting

My germination method is very reliable, I don't soak seeds, nor do I leave them in moist tissue paper etc.... I just plant the seed directly in the fully soaked Coco, 2cm deep, cover with clingfilm and top with some thick cardboard to prevent light entry. I leave the pots under a couple of high positioned lights (for warmth) and usually 48-72 hours later the seedlings pop up. This way is more natural and way less stressful for the new seedlings. 48 hours from fridge to sprout is pretty good!

This time, my 100% record was shattered ... the Toofless Alien popped first about 40 hours after planting, and the Cream Mandarine soon after at about 48 hrs. The Pineapple didn't show by day 3.... I had a light dig around, and found nothing , so I planted another Pineapple Express seed on Thursday night, and Saturday lunchtime I was greeted by this....

So Pineapple Express, (the sexy one), took a while to come (ahem). I had a couple of goes and popped one in the end. (I'll get my hat).

These are the pics so far....

Toofless Alien day 3

and day 5

See how I water around the periphery? If the surface of the hump gets dry below the surface, I use a syringe to gently water the top. At this stage I water the day they pop, then every other day.

This was Cream Mandarine XL on day 3....

....and on day 5....

I have since made a wire support for her to stop the fans blowing her down. I made some out of plastic tubing, like the one on the Alien, but I can't find the others.....

Here's the Pineapple again...

She's officially day 1 on the day the others are day 5. That's gonna make feeding tricky as this grow progresses. It's gonna be....

They are still on an EC 0.7 feed, made up of 0.2ml/L Cal Mag in EC 0 rainwater then split into 2 buckets so I can dose out 0.3ml/L of A in one and B in the other, then mix the 2 buckets together. Add 0.1ml/L Drip clean and 0.3ml/L Roots Excellurator, and finally 0.2ml/L Nitrogen. Adjusted pH to 5.8. In a couple of days, day 14, I will start adding Silicon (in the form of Amino Treatment) starting at 0.1ml/L building up by 0.1ml/L every week till flowering starts, then I'll drop it.

I received a new batch of Coco, so I filled up the airpots so the medium is level..... I don't want to slow down any side root growth.

Lights have been lowered to around 75cm, and I'll maybe lower them a touch next week, then let the girls grow up to the lights. They're on 22 hrs a day.... off for 2 hours during the midday heat.

Here's some pics from the other day, my only complaint is maybe a touch of heat stress by the way the leaf edges are just beginning to curl up. I might drop another hour of light, not sure yet.

The Toofless Alien is at day 11, and having the best start, she's around 15cm high and is getting big already...

The Cream Mandarine XL is also on day 11, looking very healthy, and is 11cm high...

Pineapple Express is 5 days younger at day 6, but she's storming up at 8cm. She is supposed to finish quicker than the other 2, so I expect she'll catch up for a triple harvest....

Temps have dropped a little, mid 30s instead of high 30s, but it's predicted to be another scorcher this weekend. Luckily the pool's clean, the grass is cut, and I don't plan going anywhere for a few days....Hope you all have a great weekend, happy growing!

I love that Night Queen sooooo much, the other night I decided to fill up a spare 20L airpot with some Coco, prepare it with some left over EC 0.7 nute, and plant another one. I just couldn't resist! Best freebies I've ever had, so thank you, Seedsman!

Hopefully she'll pop on Monday night, and will be around 15 days behind the Alien and Cream Mandarine.... and 10 behind the Pineapple.... up to 3 different buckets of feed lying around for me to get confused about ..... madness!

So now I have 4x 20L airpots on the go, as opposed to my usual 3. It's gonna get pretty damn crowded in there soon, more madness!!

I call them Bats..... but over here, they're Flying Foxes nothing's simple, eh?At dusk, there's just thousands of them cruising overhead, feasting on the billions of bastard insects that plague these shores. Plus they're after all the fruit - they're all ripening, mangoes. passionfruit, bananas etc... all sounds lovely but the trees are in thick snake infested scrub. Brown snakes and Red bellied blacks.... and our 'local' hospital (over an hour away) doesn't keep antivenom WTF???

With all these flying beasts all over the shop, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a nice thick coating of hyper-guano on our roof (and in our drinking water)..... good for the girls though!!!

Unfortunately, 2 of my main suppliers got into a spot of bother the other day...

Just a quick update, it's day 16 and I have 4 little girls in varying stages of early veg.

The Toofless Alien is flying away....

The Cream Mandarine is just behind....

They are both on an EC 0.8 feed, same as the 1st feed but with 0.3ml/L Nitrogen instead of 0.2ml/L, and I started adding Silicone (Amino Treatment) at 0.1ml/L (and I'll increase it by 0.1ml/L every week while in veg). They have a 400W Skyline LED each, about 70cm above the tops. I will probably keep the lighting schedule at 22 hours on and 2 hours off (during the heat of the day) for the entire grow. You can see there are some signs of heat stress, but I'm OK with that, I have the internal fans on in an attempt to get good air circulation without damaging or bending over the delicate plants.

Pineapple Express is on day 11, so still on an EC 0.7 feed as before, but I will start feeding her the EC 0.8 mix that I'm currently giving the TA and CM in a day or two. She has a Photon 126 LED above her, also at around 70cm.

Finally my newest addition to the grow, a Night Queen. She took the usual 48 hours to germinate and showed her head last night just before I went to bed.....

Oooh I cant wait till she grows up so I can smoke her, I've already had a couple this morning (from my 1st Night Queen grow) as a little gift to myself - got the day off!

Greetings from down here.... it's day 25 of Multi Strain Madness and it has been a bit hairy dealing with 4 plants of different strains and different ages. I have 3 separate buckets off nutrient, labelled to avoid confusion, and I have separate spreadsheets on the computer to track what I'm dosing in each bucket and feeding to which plant..

It's been a good week in the tent, despite the ambient temps being up in the mid 30s still.... humidity at 80-90% with the occasional serious thunderstorm...... Autumn down here means torrential rain and flooding. But it should cool down too! The changing of the seasons also means a lot of the beasts out there go to beddie byes for the winter. So hopefully the snakes are gonna piss off for a bit...... we were gonna go for a swim the other day and I saw a little snake in the pool..... about 50cm long, swimming quite quickly towards me from the other side. It looked like a tree snake, so I grabbed a little plate that was lying around, and scooped it out..... it fucking went for me the fucker, so I legged it, got my phone out and went to take a pic of it as it went and hid in the rocks just beside the pool......

I sent this pic to a snake ID place, and they immediately texted back (on a Sunday) - WARNING THE SNAKE IS A JUVENILE EASTERN BROWN SNAKE - highly aggressive and seriously venomous, more so than the adults, cos they don't regulate how much toxin they deliver (some snakes will dry bite you as a warning).... these just give you the whole lot.

The Toofless Alien is the largest.... about 30cm high and roughly as wide. I have removed some of the huge fan leaves from the main stem to allow the side branches to get more light and develop more quickly. She's on an EC 1.0 feed the same as last week, just with the usual 0.1ml/L increase in Nitrogen and Silicon. She likes about 4 Litres a day, an increase from the 3 of previous weeks, so I expect her to take off soon! Once those branches get a little bigger, Ill stake her out a bit.

Cream Mandarine is next at 26cm, she's also on the same EC 1.0 feed as the Toofless Alien and although she is flourishing, she's a little smaller than the Alien so far. Once again, I have also removed some fan leaves from the main stem..... I have done this for the last few grows.... the plants get such big fan leaves that the new stems are completely shaded from the light. I only do 2 at a time so as not to stress the main stem.

The Pineapple Express is next, officially at day 20. She has what the Toofless Alien and Cream Mandarine had last week, so she's on EC 0.9. She's 22cm tall and I have just removed one set of (massive) fan leaves. They have a really wide leaves and deep, heavy serrations, very distinctive and very Indica by the looks of it. She looks like she's happy and growing vigorously.....

Finally the Night Queen, only 11 days old, and looking good. She's on an EC 0.8 feed, I've started giving Multizyme and Silicon this week.

I must remember to add more Coco and level out her medium tonight .

That's it for this week, next week there should be some preflowers on the Alien and Mandarine, and hopefully they'll start stretching out a bit.Thanks for dropping by, good growing karma to all!

Looking really nice and lush bro as usual.I fucking hate snakes and Aus got some off the most venomous in the world.Be safe bro just best to kill them on sight.Pic still down. M not back yet he just come out hospital with pneumonia.He was really bad way but getting better now.

I staked her bigger branches out a little to let more light and air in, but she fills out so fast!

I have also been trimming away at her leaves..... a few here and a few there......I don't go mad with defoliation cos as we all know, the leaves serve a purpose. IF those leaves are impeding the growth of anything underneath, like new side shoots, then I try tucking them under but eventually they end up coming off. I dunno how effective a big old fan leaf is gonna be if its right at the bottom, not getting much light and draining precious energy from the plant when she could be concentrating on getting big for me higher up.

I start by removing the big fans from the main stem, 2 at a time. All in all, I've taken about 6-8 off the main stem now on the Alien, plus plenty of stuff underneath and below.....

What I have noticed is that removing those main stem leaves has slowed down the growth of the main stem itself.... it's healthy but it would be taller now if I had kept the leaves I'm sure of that. On the other hand, the side branches have really grown, they are almost as thick as the main stem, and have grown to the same height as the main stem.... so rather than a Christmas tree I'll hopefully have a flatter hedge with a nice even canopy.If I go overboard and hack away , the whole plant will take a few days to get back up to full power again, ultimately reducing my potential yield. I always think of leaves as little power stations.... get rid of those big old energy inefficient ones to make way for the new breed. BUT take out too many power stations and the city can't function (man, I'm soooooo stoned right now so I'll leave it there).

She's a thirsty one, wanting 5-6 litres a day now, so I have upped her feed to EC 1.0 by adding a touch more A&B (now at 0.4ml/L) and the Nitrogen and Silicone are increased to 0.4ml/L as well.

The Mandarine is also very healthy, so I have increased her feed to EC 1.0 as well. She's always been on the same feed as the Alien. Here she is from above....

As you can see, there's plenty of action going on in there. I have started training out some of her branches as well, just by holding them down to the edge of the pot with some soft wire.....

I have left the Pineapple Express and the Night Queen to their own devices, both are very happy, so here they are to finish off this update....

The Pineapple Express is getting nice and bushy on day 23. She's had a few fans removed, and you can see the new growth exploding through. She's on an EC 0.9 feed with A&B and Silicon at 0.3ml/L and Nitrogen at 0.4ml/L.

Night Queen is just 15 days old and already showing promise!

I prepared her nutrient and realised I'd mixed up exactly what I'm giving the Pineapple . I'm deliberately pushing her harder as I am using data from my previous NQ grow as a guide to this attempt.

It's the end of another weekend, and I'm just enjoying a fat one from a jar marked "Daiquiri Lime A" - harvested 11-11-16. Its so damn smooth, and that Lime taste is just incredible. It's got me in the mood to ramble on and post another update....

It's day 34 of Multi Strain Madness, and it's been a week of good growth again.The Toofless Alien has just started flowering, and I'm seeing preflowers on the Cream Mandarine XL as well.... both are on 34 days.The Pineapple Express is just a week younger at 29 days old, and is filling out nicely.... she's taller than the Mandarine already, and looks like she's gonna be a handful. Night Queen is just 21 days old, and is also looking to be a big one.... she's really grown a lot this week.

Here they all are (apologies for the crap shots , my camera SD card is playing up so I took these on my phone).....

You'll be pleased to see the Toofless Alien is still symmetrical from above....

She's 45cm high and 65cm wide, and on a EC 1.0 feed made up of Cal Mag (0.2ml/L) and base nutes (0.35ml/L) to EC 0.4, Nitrogen at 0.4ml/L, Silicon at 0.5ml/L plus the usual additives of Multizyme (1ml/L) Roots Excellurator (0.3ml/L) and Drip Clean (0.1ml/L). She drinks around 6-7L a day! I have a feeling she would be taller but maybe not as wide, had I not removed her main stem fan leaves.

She's taking up a bit of space now, so I may have to add more lighting for her to bask in....

Cream Mandarine XL is not looking so XL at the moment standing at 31cm high and 48cm wide.....

She's healthy, showing early flowers, but not gaining much in height or width compared to the Alien. I haven't gone mad with trimming and shes not showing brown tips. She drinks about 5L a day the same mix as for the Alien. From above, there's plenty of early flower sites, with another nice symmetrical canopy...

Pineapple Express.... 5 days younger than the Alien and Mandarine, but is bigger than the Mandarine already, and looks like she is going to take up a fair bit of space in the tent as well...

She's 36cm high and 50cm wide, and is on an EC 0.9 mix of Cal Mag (0.2ml/L) and base nutes (0.3ml/L) to EC 0.4, Nitrogen at 0.4ml/L, Silicon at 0.3ml/L and again, the usual additives of Multizyme (1ml/L) Roots Excellurator (0.3ml/L) and Drip Clean (0.1ml/L).I think she's bigger because I haven't taken many leaves off.... those big fans have been tucked under and the plant has grown up, so they've stayed below, allowing the new shoots to poke through.This morning I saw early preflowers, so shes heading in the right direction!

Last but not least, the Night Queen, only 21 days old, but catching up in size. I haven't taken any leaves off, and shes filling out nicely....

She stands 24cm tall and is 40cm wide. I keep her on the same EC 0.9 feed as the Pineapple.

So altogether, they are doing very well. The older three will start to stretch a bit this week, and I'll stake the Alien out a bit more as she progresses.The Pineapple may need a bit of staking out as well, to get more light and better air circulation, but I don't want to stress any of them out at this important stage. I'm planning on giving one more week of vegging feeds before I consider adding Bud Ignitor and dropping Nitrogen and Silicon to boost the amount of flowering sites..... I wanna see more upward growth first though, as I think Bud Ignitor inhibits stretch. The Night Queen is really taking off, she looks so different compared to last week.

I was with the kids yesterday in the garden, and 2 big white chickens just turned up, having climbed through the jungle up the (Brown) snake infested hillside.... they look really healthy, seem reasonably tame, and hung around all night, so this morning I got some chicken feed and I'm gonna have to build some kind of chicken coop so they don't get eaten by the serpents. The Pythons will love them for a pre-hibernation feast.

Even I caught myself, red eyed and glazed, looking at them intently at one point, imagining what they'd look like on a plate, steaming hot, out the oven! Who knows, with any luck I might get some fresh eggs out of them!Have a great weekend y'all!